IFD fire crews call in ATF to help with investigation

Nov. 11, 2012

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Written by

Robert King, Jll Disis and Ryan Sabalow

Aftermath of home explosion on Indianapolis' South...: Indianapolis Fire Department works to control the fire from an explosion in the 8300 block of Fieldfare Way on the Far Southside. (Matt Kryger / The Star)

An aerial view of the two homes leveled from an overnight explosion. / Matt Kryger / The Star from WTHR Chopper 13

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Update: 11:15 a.m.

Marc Lotter, spokesman for Mayor Greg Ballard, said Indianapolis Metropolitan police and fire crews are beginning to let some residents back into their homes to collect belongings.

Lotter said 27 homes have been declared uninhabitable, and eight others have been heavily damaged.

Some residents will be allowed to return to their homes so they can get any belongings they can carry out with their hands. All residents will be escorted by police and fire crews.

For homes that are still inhabitable, Lotter said power will be restored to them one-by-one as a safety precaution, with most being restored by 3 p.m.

Update: 10:55 a.m.

From the neighborhood's northeast corner, burned roofs and pummeled garages are visible. As are Department of Public Works officials going from house to house. Investigators appear to be using a ladder truck with a cherry-picker bucket to survey the damage from up high. No one is being allowed inside.

John and Wendy Ralston live near the subdivision; they say they're seeing more traffic than normal down their street this morning as people try to get glimpse of explosion wreckage.

"My heart is just breaking" for the victims, Wendy Ralston said.

Closer to the subdivision with damaged homes visible for her front door Becky Brehob, 42, recounted a chaotic scene as hundreds of neighbors converged on her property Saturday night, either to escape the damage or get a closer look.

Brehob says after the boom she ran outside and heard "horrific screams and people yelling."

"I don't want to see that again -- the horrors of seeing it and the screams -- these things you don't forget."

Her power remains out.

Update: 10:15 a.m.

Dan Able described his family's home as a "total loss."

"There was glass all over the floor," he said. "And structural damage."

The Ables escaped their home but weren't able to take any of their belongings.

"I didn't get anything," Jan Able said. "It was so terribly frightening."

But the Ables did manage to rescue one thing: Their 5-year-old miniature poodle mix, Bella.

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"I was screaming, I thought she was dead," Jan Able said. "(Dan) did go in and get her."

Update: 10:05 a.m.

To investigate the explosion, Indianapolis fire crews called in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for assistance.

Fire spokeswoman Rita Burris said the bureau was most likely called in based on two determining factors: its amount of resources and the massive dollar cost accumulated because of the explosion.

"Right now it's an unknown cause," Burris said, "And (the bureau) had resources that we don't have."

Burris said those resources include increased manpower and machinery.

Burris said she also expected the damage, which affected 18 homes, including at least one that was completely decimated, to amount to at least $1 million, which would draw the attention of a federal agency.

Update: 10:01 a.m.

Dan and Jan Able were among the area residents who stopped at Mary Bryan Elementary Sunday morning to collect supplies.

The couple live across the street from the home where the explosion is believed to have originated.

Dan Able, 58, said the explosion and ensuing destruction sounded and looked like a war zone.

"It was just mass chaos," Dan Able said. "You can't even imagine how bad it was."

The Ables said they were familiar with the woman who lived in the house that exploded, adding that she has a 12-year-old daughter.

Before the explosion, Dan Able said he didn't believe anyone was at that house.

"The blinds were all shut and the vehicles were gone out of the driveway," Dan Able said. "It was as if no one was there."

Previously

A powerful explosion killed two people and damaged at least 18 homes in a Far Southside neighborhood Saturday, a blast so strong that it was heard several miles away and left a scene described as both a war zone and a disaster area. Its cause wasn't immediately known.

The blast hit the Richmond Hill subdivision, near Stop 11 and Sherman Drive, just after 11 p.m. It obliterated two houses immediately, badly damaged two adjacent houses that were set afire from the blast and rocked neighbors out of their living room chairs, sent shelves and wall hangings flying and scattered debris across an area of several blocks.

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Alex Pflanzer, 31, and his wife, Whitney, were in bed when their windows exploded and their ceiling collapsed, spreading insulation everywhere. Pflanzer said his instinct was to grab his gun. Heading outside, they saw people covered in blood leaving the neighborhood.

"It was like a war zone," Whitney Pflanzer said. "It was silent after that. And it was dark and dusty, and I thought it was a nightmare — it was a nightmare."

Authorities fearing a gas explosion ordered an evacuation that sent residents walking through neighborhood streets and across nearby fields in slippers and pajamas, toting children in blankets, some with pets on leashes, some with their pets left behind. Within an hour, more than 200 people were huddling at the Mary Bryan Elementary School, a temporary shelter that soon was flooded with donations of food and supplies. Gas and electricity to the neighborhood was shut off and it's not clear when residents will be able to return.

The blast was so immense, the debris so widespread and the flames so bright that some initially thought it was the result of a plane crash, a notion that authorities quickly dismissed. While a gas explosion seemed most likely, Indianapolis Fire Department spokeswoman Bonnie Hensley said she's never seen a gas explosion that powerful.

"A lot of it looks like a tornado," Hensley said. "The extent of the damage is large and it goes out a pretty good ways."

So devastating was the scene that rescue workers were going door to door looking for victims and marking the houses that had been searched in much the same way tornado-stricken areas are notated.

"Every investigator in town is sorting through the rubble tonight," Hensley said at about 3 a.m. "We don't know if there are any more victims."

No information was made available on the two people who died.

Those who walked out of the neighborhood described a typical Saturday night, spent with family or around a television, abruptly disturbed by an eruption unlike anything they'd previously experienced.

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Celeste Brown, 32, was at her parent's house on Andrusia Lane when they heard a loud crash that sounded to her like a car crashing into the house. They saw a bright orange light in the sky and smoke rolling. Within minutes, police were on hand ordering them to evacuate. Brown wound up carrying her 4-year-old daughter Reese out of the neighborhood wrapped in a blanket.

Elaine Plumpe, 56, was asleep in her bed with her dog Angel when the animal suddenly began barking, waking her up.

"I heard a big boom," she said. "I thought I was dreaming.

She soon found that items from her wall had crashed to the floor. Outside, there were flames one street over and a pungent odor of smoke in the air.

Roz Aldridge, 56, was watching television with her son Zach, 19, when they were rocked out of their chairs by the blast. Pictures and mirrors on her wall fell to the floor. The explosion smashed her garage door and damaged her front door. "I was terrified," she said. "Absolutely terrified."

She made it to the elementary school shelter with her son and her husband by walking across a grassy field in her bedroom slippers, pajamas and a coat. At the shelter, she was still frazzled.

"I just shook," she said. "It was so traumatic."

Of the 200 evacuees who initially flocked to the disaster shelter at Mary Bryan Elementary, officials said only three stayed the night. Most found temporary housing with family and friends.

Donations for the affected began flooding into the school within an hour of the blast. They included pillows and blankets, baby items and all sorts of food. Southside businesses sent items immediately. And people who were following the news at home showed up with items to donate.

American Red Cross officials said further donations should not be dropped at the school, but local fire departments.

Code enforcement officials were expected to look over the neighborhood this morning to determine what houses are safe to return to, which are unsafe and which simply need to be demolished.

But any return was likely to depend on whether officials feel certain no further explosions were likely.

Citizens Energy tested for gas leaks in the subdivision but has found none, Dan Considine, a company spokesperson, said Sunday morning.

"Certainly gas is suspected here but until we get investigators on the scene I'd just be speculating," he said.